Details
LEE, RICHARD HENRY, Signer (Virginia). Autograph letter signed ("Richard Henry Lee"), with an initialled postscript, to "My dear friend," New York, 7 February 1785. 4 pages, 4to, 230 x 190 mm. (9 x 7½ in.), the two leaves cleanly separated at central fold.
"AMERICAN REFUGEES & TORIES...WILL...PREVENT ANY AMICABLE SETTLEMENT BETWEEN [GREAT BRITAIN AND THE U.S.]"
A fine, lengthy letter, primarily concerning international and national current events: "...We have little news here -- that which is foreign is entirely confined to the quarrel between the Emperor and Holland. Blows had certainly been exchanged, but the winter intervening, the better opinion is, that the negotiations...will terminate the dispute amicably. For the sake of humanity this is to be wished. A variety of other business has hitherto prevented us from going into the consideration of revenue matters -- indeed there being no Treasurer Officers since the resignation of Rob[ert] Morris has been one cause of delay in this most important of all our concerns...The Trade between us & Great Britain & their W[est] Indies, the territorial dispute about St. Croix, the detention of the Western Posts, and some other subjects of doubt, will render it indispensable that we should send soon an Able, Honest, Conciliating Minister to the Court of London. Both that Court and the Nation are so beset with American refugees & Tories...that they will keep the two Countries in perpetual hot water, and prevent any amicable settlement between us. The presence of such a Minister as I have described will banish a Myriad of those Miscreants. When the Commissioners who are now treating with the Western Indians shall have finished that business, I expect that we shall proceed in Congress to take measures for benefitting the United States by the sale of some part of of that most fertile and extensive region that has been yielded to the U.S. by Virginia [the Ohio Valley]...." Provenance: Richards, 1981.
"AMERICAN REFUGEES & TORIES...WILL...PREVENT ANY AMICABLE SETTLEMENT BETWEEN [GREAT BRITAIN AND THE U.S.]"
A fine, lengthy letter, primarily concerning international and national current events: "...We have little news here -- that which is foreign is entirely confined to the quarrel between the Emperor and Holland. Blows had certainly been exchanged, but the winter intervening, the better opinion is, that the negotiations...will terminate the dispute amicably. For the sake of humanity this is to be wished. A variety of other business has hitherto prevented us from going into the consideration of revenue matters -- indeed there being no Treasurer Officers since the resignation of Rob[ert] Morris has been one cause of delay in this most important of all our concerns...The Trade between us & Great Britain & their W[est] Indies, the territorial dispute about St. Croix, the detention of the Western Posts, and some other subjects of doubt, will render it indispensable that we should send soon an Able, Honest, Conciliating Minister to the Court of London. Both that Court and the Nation are so beset with American refugees & Tories...that they will keep the two Countries in perpetual hot water, and prevent any amicable settlement between us. The presence of such a Minister as I have described will banish a Myriad of those Miscreants. When the Commissioners who are now treating with the Western Indians shall have finished that business, I expect that we shall proceed in Congress to take measures for benefitting the United States by the sale of some part of of that most fertile and extensive region that has been yielded to the U.S. by Virginia [the Ohio Valley]...." Provenance: Richards, 1981.